Medical student’s academic performance: The role of academic emotions and motivation

Introduction: Identification of the factors that promote academicperformance is of importance in the success rate of medical students.This study aimed to find the relationship between emotions,motivation and academic performance of medical students.Methods: This descriptive-correlative study was conductedamong 370 medical students in Shiraz University of MedicalSciences using convenience sampling. Academic emotionsquestionnaire (AEQ) including 75 items and college studentversion of work preference inventory including 30 items were usedto collect the data. The Cronbach’s alpha for the eight types ofacademic emotions ranged from 0.73 to 0.86, and for the intrinsicand extrinsic motivation it was 0.81 and 0.87, respectively. Thedata were analyzed using Pearson correlation, multiple regression,independent t-test and one-way ANOVA through SPSS, 14.Results: Results indicated a positive and significant correlationbetween positive emotions (enjoyment, hope, pride) and students’academic performance (r=0.37, r=0.27 and r=0.39, respectively,with p<0.01). A negative and significant correlation was foundbetween negative emotions (anger, anxiety, hopelessness, shameand boredom) with students’ academic performance (r=-0.15, r=-0.24, r=-0.23, r=-0.215 and r=-0.21, respectively, with p<0.01).There was a positive and significant correlation between intrinsicand extrinsic motivation and academic performance (r=0.63, r=0.14,with p<0.01, p<0.05, respectively). Emotions related to enjoyment,hope, pride, hopelessness, boredom and intrinsic motivation wereshown as the key predictors of students’ academic performance.Conclusion: The results of this study showed the key role ofmotivation and positive emotions in increasing medical students’academic performance.Keywords: Academic emotions, Motivation, Academic performance, Medicalstudents